Bigfoot A Big No-Show On His National Tour

PHOENIX -- Rick Dyer made big news after claiming that he shot and killed a Bigfoot on the outskirts of San Antonio two years ago. He sent out several pictures of what looked a bit like frozen remains of the legendary beast -- or at least a Halloween costume he keeps in his freezer. And he promised a big, national tour.

Dyer was supposed to kick off the tour this week in Phoenix. And, well, we're all here ... waiting. But it seems like Dyer's Bigfoot has stage fright.

But now, it's clear that Bigfoot is a big no-show, amid grumbling from conference attendees that it might just be a big fraud.

"There is a large fan base in Phoenix, and everybody was looking forward to us coming," Dyer told The Huffington Post. "But things happened and we were going to go to the UFO Congress and on Friday, they said they were real excited and couldn’t wait for us to come."

But things didn't pan out for Dyer to bring his alleged Bigfoot carcass, nicknamed "Hank," to be displayed at the UFO Congress.

"It was like a bunch of confusion. I don’t know what happened in Phoenix," Dyer said. "I wanted to go to Phoenix. If we get a venue in Phoenix, we will be happy to go back there. We love Phoenix. The only reason we’re doing this tour is for me to bring Hank to the people, and that’s it. I just hate to disappoint the people that I’m trying to show it to."

But there are others who don't believe Dyer's story.

"We talked with them to see whether or not they could have table space at our event to show off Hank, their alleged Bigfoot character, and we decided that, because [Dyer] was a known hoaxer in the past, and we’re a credible organization, we really did not want to associate with a situation that could very easily be another hoax," said Maureen Elsberry, a co-organizer of the UFO Congress and co-investigator of the Science Channel's "Uncovering Aliens."

"We basically just told them 'no thank you,' we don’t want that at the event. We have a full program, we have lots of people here. We just decided to not have them here."

Considering Dyer’s past involvement with a Bigfoot hoax, HuffPost asked Elsberry if she thinks he should be given a second chance with his latest Bigfoot claims.

"Sure, people deserve a second chance, but if you look at the fact that he’s trying to profit off of this in sort of a circus sideshow, it really does not look very favorably on being a credible situation, and the fact that he claims they’re doing all these DNA tests -- well, it’s been two years, allegedly. Where are the results of this DNA test?"

Dyer has claimed that he sent DNA samples of his alleged Bigfoot to an unnamed university for analysis. However, we've yet to receive word on what they found -- or even who has conducted the tests on what theoretically would stand to be evidence of a new primate species.

The national Bigfoot tour -- dubbed the "I Told You So" tour -- was publicized as kicking off this week in Phoenix, Ariz. And just as quickly, amid venue confusion, the Phoenix leg of the tour was canceled, because Dyer had nowhere to actually display Hank, reports WFSB.com.

Pictures Of Rick Dyer's Alleged Bigfoot (Story continues below)

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Bigfoot 'Hank': From Clay To Display

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This is the table board on which Chris Russell created Hank the Bigfoot, which later went on tour with Rick Dyer, as he claimed this was a real creature.

On the left is an early clay model of what would become the head of Hank the Bigfoot (on the right), created by Chris Russell of TwistedToybox.net.

This shows the mold of what would turn into the head of the hoaxed Hank the Bigfoot. The mold was created by Chris Russell of TwistedToybox.net.

Monster maker Chris Russell with a few of his creations. He's the man who created Hank the Bigfoot that was taken on tour by hoaxer Rick Dyer.

This is a close-up of the alleged face of Bigfoot, reportedly shot and killed by hunter Rick Dyer on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas, in September 2012. It turned out to be the creation -- paid for by Dyer -- of monster costume maker Chris Russell.

The body of an alleged dead Bigfoot prior to being taken on a multi-city tour of the American Southwest in February 2014. It turned out to be, in fact, a prop body paid for by hoaxer Rick Dyer and created by monster costume maker Chris Russell.

Close-up of alleged Bigfoot upper body, reportedly shot and killed by hunter Rick Dyer, who took the body on a short tour of a few cities in the American Southwest in February 2014. Dyer eventually confessed the displayed creature was a hoax that he paid monster costume maker Chris Russell to create.

This is an image taken in 2012 by Rick Dyer of a reported Bigfoot standing outside of Dyer's tent, shortly before the hunter allegedly shot and killed the creature.

Rick Dyer is pictured with his reportedly killed Bigfoot. He claimed the authenticity of the creature would be revealed in February 2014 by scientists. That did NOT happen. Instead, Dyer confessed at the end of March that the creature was not, in fact, real. It had been paid for by Dyer and created by monster costume maker Chris Russell.

A new wrinkle in this story hints that Dyer has kept secret that he didn't shoot just one Bigfoot on that day in 2012 -- information is beginning to leak out that he also killed an adolescent Bigfoot, supposedly being studied by a laboratory, according to the New York Daily News.

"History is very important when trying to decide if someone is currently telling the truth," said ex-FBI Special Agent Ben Hansen. "Rick Dyer has admittedly hoaxed a Bigfoot event in the past. This current event follows the pattern of what I call legendizing. Hoaxers who legendize will add new information when the story starts to fade out of view. This whole idea that he shot a second Bigfoot has been part of his story previously; however, he never mentioned that he had this body and that it was going to be part of this tour.

"It only appears when suddenly, it looks like the whole tour is collapsing."

Hansen, known for his work hosting the Syfy channel series "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files," also lectures on profiling hoaxers.

"Rick talks more about himself and about how he’s disproving everybody else than he does about his creature and the facts of the case," Hansen told HuffPost. "He’s more concerned about aggrandizing who he is and how he’s the greatest Bigfoot hunter than he is about actual facts that could validate his claim.

"When it comes to substantiating physical evidence in these types of claims, it’s quite simple, but Rick fits the profile of a hoaxer in that we’re seeing a lot of delays, vagueness in the details of who’s researching the evidence and ultimately, the evidence is never produced," Hansen said.

Dyer's website features his own description of the chain of events that allegedly resulted in the death of Bigfoot.

But, as the Daily News points out, "not mentioned in the account is an adolescent male Bigfoot that Dyer also killed and is currently being studied by the lab."

Too many questions linger:

-- Why hadn't Dyer been more forthcoming about shooting a second Bigfoot until now?

-- What's the holdup over the non-release of DNA "evidence" from that unnamed university?

-- Why is it so difficult for Dyer to find venues at which to display Hank the Bigfoot?

-- What, exactly, is the price of credibility?

Also on HuffPost:

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The Legend of Bigfoot Continues

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This still image taken from a 1977 film purports to show Bigfoot in California.

A film still shows what former rodeo rider Roger Patterson said is the American version of the Abominable Snowman of Nepal and Tibet. The film of the tall creature was shot by Patterson and Robert Gimlin northeast of Eureka, Calif., in October 1967.

As a motor biker was driving through the Grand River area of Ohio in April 2012, an alleged Bigfoot ran across the road and was caught on videotape.

Depicted is an illustration of a creature reported to inhabit the Kemerovo region of Siberia. Scientists from the U.S., Russia and other countries have yet to find one of these creatures known as the Russian Snowman. In early October, researchers claimed to be 95 percent certain that the animal exists.

An alleged footprint of a Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, appears in snow near Mount Everest in 1951. Now, scientists are setting out to find evidence of a reported unknown, hairy, bipedal creature known as the Siberian Snowman.

Bigfoot or bear? Impression left on the driver's side window of a pickup truck owned by Jeffrey Gonzalez. The bizarre image was left by an alleged Bigfoot in California's Sierra National Forest over Memorial Day 2011. DNA samples of the impressions will eventually determine the identity of the animal responsible for them. (See next slide for a close-up of the paw-like impression.)

Close-up of the "paw" print image. The impression was reportedly left by Bigfoot on the window of a pickup truck in the California Sierra National Forest over Memorial Day weekend 2011.

Bigfoot or bear? Pictured is a second impression left on the rear side window of the same truck from the previous slides. According to forensic/law enforcement photographer Mickey Burrow, "What you're seeing is a swipe mark. It looks like a small hand, swiping to the left, leaving another impression, and there's hair within those areas -- you can see where the hair would be."

This footprint was found over Memorial Day weekend, 2011, near Fresno, Calif. by a group of campers who were on a Bigfoot-hunting expedition. The print, measuring approximately 12 inches, was found near a truck where possible DNA evidence was left behind by more than one Bigfoot creature.

This footprint was found in 2008 in the Sierra National Forest near Fresno, Calif.

Thomas Byers snapped this photo of "Bigfoot" along Golden Valley Church Road in Rutherford County on March 22, 2011.

Bill Willard is the leader of a group searching for evidence of a Sasquatch or Bigfoot creature, spotted by, among others, his two sons in Spotsylvania County. He is shown on May 19 in Thornburg, Va., with a plaster cast he made from a suspicious footprint several years ago.

This still frame image from video provided by Bigfoot Global LLC shows what Whitton and Dyer claimed was a Bigfoot or Sasquatch creature in an undisclosed area of a northern Georgia forest in June 2008.

This October 2007 image was taken by an automated camera set up by a hunter in a Pennsylvania forest the previous month. Some said it was a Bigfoot creature; others believed it was just a sick bear.

A preserved skull and hand said to be that of a Yeti or Abominable Snowman is on display at Pangboche monastery, near Mount Everest.

Idaho State University professor Jeffrey Meldrum displays what he said is a cast of a Bigfoot footprint from eastern Washington in September 2006. Some scientists said the school should revoke Meldrum's tenure.

Joedy Cook, director of the Ohio Center for Bigfoot Studies, talks to a visitor to his booth on Oct. 15, 2005, at the Texas Bigfoot Conference in Jefferson, Texas. The event, hosted by the Texas Bigfoot Research Center, drew enthusiasts and researchers of the legendary creature.

Ken Gerhard of Houston, Texas, holds a duplicate plaster cast footprint Oct. 15, 2005, at the Texas Bigfoot Conference. The event, hosted by the Texas Bigfoot Research Center, drew enthusiasts and researchers of the legendary creature.

Josh Gates, host of Syfy TV's "Destination: Truth," holds a plaster cast of what Malaysian ghost hunters said was a Bigfoot footprint in 2006.

Al Hodgson, a volunteer guide at the Willow Creek-China Flat Musuem in California, holds up a plaster cast of an alleged Bigfoot imprint in 2000. The museum houses a collection of research material donated by the estate of Bob Titmus, who spent his life trying to track the creature.

Costume maker Philip Morris, who does not believe the Bigfoot legend, claimed the Patterson-Gimlin film showed a person wearing a gorilla suit that he made.